Part V Projects

The commencement of Part V of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 allowed the Board to employ solicitors to give advice and assistance under the Act, to act for persons receiving legal aid, or to work with local organisations.

In 2005, we announced a number of projects that will start in early 2006. These are detailed below. You can also read about our previous first round projects.

In 2008, the Highlands and Islands Part V Service was opened for people in the Highlands and Islands who are having difficulties finding legal help or the services of a solicitor - read more.

Current projects

Argyll and Bute Advice Network Project

The solicitor will be funded initially for two years and will cover the whole of Argyll and Bute, based at Argyll and Bute Council Offices In Lochgilphead. Using innovative information technology, the solicitor will be able to take on their own specialist legal aid casework covering a vast geographical area- some 2,600 square miles including 25 islands. He will also provide a secondary advice service to advice and rights staff. In addition, the solicitor will also be responsible for the delivery of  an advice agency training programme that will look to maximise information technology resources such as the internet/intranet, email, video and telephone conferencing, to better equip advisers in dealing with a wider range of common issues involving legal advice.

Disability Legal Advice Project

This project is aimed at providing specialist legal advice to clients with disabilities in Lanarkshire. This project will be funded initially for two years and will cover the whole of Lanarkshire. Based at the South Lanarkshire Disability Forum in Hamilton. The solicitor will be responsible for providing the secondary advice service and training programme for advice agency staff and local solicitors, as well as taking on his own limited amount of legal aid casework.

Fife Rights Forum Project

This project is aimed at providing specialist legal advice to clients with mental health issues in Fife. With funds made available by the Scottish Executive under Part V of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986, the Scottish Legal Aid Board has appointed Claudia Albrecht to work with Fife Rights Forum and Citizen’s Advice and Rights Fife to respond to the identified lack of access to specialist legal advice on mental health issues in Fife as well as the documented increase in demand for such services following the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003

The project will be funded initially for two years and will cover the whole of Fife, based at Citizen’s Advice and Rights Fife in Dumfermline. She will take on their own specialist legal aid casework as well as provide a secondary advice service to advice and rights staff. In addition, the solicitor will also be responsible for the delivery of an advice agency training programme that will look at common legal issues pertaining to mental health and should result in advice agency staff being better equipped, in the long term, to deal with mental health issues involving legal advice.

Streetlegal project

This Edinburgh based project was originally known as the Streetwork project but has been awarded a further phase of funding with a slightly revised remit for the project.
They key objectives of this project are:

1. to establish referral and outreach procedures to reach the most excluded people on the streets and to undertake direct casework
2. to continually adapt and improve the accessability of the SLAB part V project for hard to reach clients
3. to undertake direct casework on housing and homelessness issues in an informal, friendly and accessible style and to promote the rights of people on the streets
4. to provide oral advice to vulnerable service users as required and to refer on cases involving family law, mental health and debt where appropriate
5. to raise issues arising from casework/policies with relevant agency and SLAB.
6. to set up and maintain a ‘virtual law centre’ for Edinburgh.
7. To provide an effective prison outreach service at Edinburgh prison.
   
   

Citizen’s Advice Scotland Part V Solicitor (Highland and Island) Project

This project has had funding renewed for phase two for a solicitor to work from the CAS Inverness office and will give training and support to CAB advisers in seven CABx in Caithness, Ross and Cromarty, Lochaber, Nairn, Moray, Skye and the Western Isles operating across a number of different locations.

Expert advice and support is offered to bureaux staff by telephone and email, as well as training in legal skills such as case diagnosis and representation to advisers and partner agencies. He will also act for clients in cases of particular interest to their local communities or where there is no representation available and the client fits within the solicitors criteria for taking on casework.